A Ukrainian sniper dubbed ‘Ghost’ has revealed how he is responsible for the deaths of 147 Russian soldiers with deadly shots fired from up to 1.5km away.
The unnamed sniper, and commander of the ‘Ghosts of Bakhmut’ also claimed that alongside his elite unit, he had exceeded a staggering 1,200 targets eliminated in just 17 months.
Speaking to Corriere, Ghost said simply that ‘killing an enemy soldier is like a normal job’ explaining how he takes aim, makes sure he is in range, and that he can’t be spotted.
‘The cleanest job is to finish him with a single, precise shot. Afterwards I have no second thoughts: woe betide me, if I don’t kill the Russians, they kill me,’ he said.
Kills made by the squad are recorded electronically using the sights of their rifles, and the unit will stay in their positions for three to five hours afterwards to make sure their quarry has been taken out.
The Bakhmut Ghosts are made up of some 20 expert snipers and are currently deployed on the frontlines of Pokrovsk, in the heart of Donbass, where every day the Ukrainians lose ground to the pressure of Russian offensives.
They are all professional soldiers and have fought for their country in some of the most crucial battles since the war broke out in February 2022.
The squad have been stationed in Bucha, Irpin, the Mariupol area, Sumy and the Northern front, and then on to Kharkiv, the clashes in Bakhmut and Avdiivka.
An elite sniper known as Ghost (right) has revealed he has killed 147 Russian soldiers with shots fired from up to 1.5km away
The unnamed commander also claims that his unit has exceeded a staggering 1,200 targets eliminated in just 17 months
The elite squad needed 10 months of training before they were deployed in Bakhmut.
Ghost, who keeps his face hidden from the public eye, explained this is an attempt to keep his daughter Vladislava, 13, safe as the ‘Russians could look for her and harm her to punish me’ – given his status as one of the best Ukrainian snipers.
He told the Italian newspaper ‘The secret of a good sniper is to have the patience to wait. Shooting a lot is useless, in fact, it can be very dangerous’.
The Ghost felled a Russian soldier at an impressive distance of 1.5km – his personal best, although the majority of his shots are between 300 and 500 metres.
He also claims his team has one of the furthest sniper kills in history, with a confirmed target being 1.5 miles away, or three times the length of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
The commander explained that on missions, squads usually head out in patrols of eight people – made up of two snipers, two communications and drone officers, three with machine guns for cover, and one who takes charge of rapid evacuation.
Throughout the 48-hour missions, on their backs they carry bags that weigh 30kg and can get even heavier in the winter due to the heating equipment.
‘We leave the jeeps five-to-six kilometers from the operational area and march in silence, spaced out, often going well beyond the Russian front lines,’ he said.
He and his team said they typically hunt high-value Russian targets from a typical distance of around 230ft and are often thrown into ‘hot spots’ as the vanguard for Ukraine’s counteroffensive actions.
‘When there is an offensive or a counteroffensive planned, our task is to go in first and clear the area,’ the anonymous commander told Insider last year.
The unit’s snipers often have to wait in one position for up to 16 hours a day, and have to be very well camouflaged.
The unit’s snipers often have to wait in one position for up to 16 hours a day, and have to be very well camouflaged
The unit are known to use the UAR-10, a Ukrainian rifle
Their primary weapon is the American Barrett M107A1, though members will also use the Barrett MRAD as well as some Ukrainian rifles, including the UAR-10 and the Snipex Alligator.
The effective range of the Barrett M107A1, understood to be the most powerful weapon the Ghosts use, is 1.14 miles, according to its owner’s manual, while its maximum range is 2.49 miles.
Speaking of the gruelling work – Ghost previously said ‘It’s nothing like American films that romanticise the work of snipers and show it as very glamorous.’
He said that most of the work the unit does is survival-based.
‘You learn how to calculate, you do the maths. You learn how to camouflage yourself, you learn about the environment. You can shoot perfectly well, but if you can’t survive, there is no value in that.’
‘We work 24 hours a day, we don’t differentiate between day or night. There are no weekends. You’re totally exhausted, all the juices are squeezed out of you, and when you come back from a mission, you’re a complete mess.’
Ghost, an entrepreneur in another life, said he’s been working as a sniper since 2014, signing up for military service after Russia illegally annexed Crimea and receiving sniper training from British, American, Canadian and Lithuanian instructors in 2016.
He confirmed the squad’s training has been put to good use, as not a single member of his team has died.
Kills made by the squad, which is named after their leader, are recorded electronically using the sights of their rifles
The sniper said that only he and another shooter have so far been wounded, during a mission in which a mine exploded near him, sending shrapnel into his leg.
This injury left him in hospital for 12 days.
He said that the key to the unit’s success is that they are a tight-knit and self-sufficient group who all wholeheartedly believe in Ukraine’s cause.
‘I am absolutely confident in each and every man who works with me.
‘We are absolutely self-reliant. Every element of our task is fulfilled by our own members — we have our own drivers, we have our own truck repairers, everything that we do, we are doing ourselves.
‘We are not relying on anyone outside of our unit. Which is probably why we are all still alive and together.’
‘Bravery is something that can be nurtured. One has to be sturdy, one has to be very resilient, very focused, psychologically very resilient, and obviously patriotic.
‘This aspect of patriotism is very important because a person has to understand what he or she is doing it for.’
But despite the group’s success and skill, Ghost warned that things are not going well in Pokrosk.
‘The Russians are constantly attacking. They seem to have an infinite number of drones, almost all of them superior to ours. I don’t know how it will end,’ he said.
